RSS Feed (Posts)

Time to Boycott French Toast, French Fries Again

That French “veil” law that we have been making fun of for ages has finally gone into effect and, predictably, it is going poorly: it looks as if 61 people (only 19 of them women) have been arrested today for demonstrating against it, for starters. (Most offensively, while you may be fined for covering your face in public, you may also be required to take classes in “French citizenship,” which has got to be, at best, stultifying. Also, most stupidly, the police can’t stop you on the street to ask you to remove your burqa or what-have-you: instead they are required to escort you to a police station. Now that’s good planning!) Two other women have been “detained” (whatever that means!) and also so have their “male colleagues,” who were presumably… not wearing burqas? And of course France considers this an incitement to “racial hatred.” I understand that the French have a different idea of “being” French (now more legislated than ever!) than we do of “being” American but this is some serious idiocy.